When you take your first steps as Niko Bellic, arriving illegally in Liberty City, you will instantly realise that Rockstar's new offering is something very special. In the latest of the Grand Theft Auto series you will no doubt spend most of your time stealing cars, evading police and killing criminals, but this game is also much more than that. The incredibly detailed environment and instantly compelling storyline together with a multitude of online features have resulted in one of the best games to be released on any platform.

The game takes you into the life of Niko, who has just come by cargo ship to Liberty City (which bears a remarkable resemblance to New York City). Niko, an immigrant from Eastern Europe, has come seeking the 'American Dream', based on emails from his boastful cousin Roman. However Niko soon finds Roman has lied about the wealth that was promised to be awaiting him, and is forced to help his cousin in his predicaments with debt and gangsters, while trying to make a name for himself. He achieves this by working for various criminal organisations throughout the city as a hit man and driver for hire. Niko's previous military experience in the Bosnian war is a great asset in these respects.

The non-linear story mode will take about 30 hours to complete alone. This is not counting the endless side-missions, races and vigilante work you can complete at your leisure. The story is impressively dynamic and it will play out differently depending on Niko's actions. At times you must choose to execute someone or let them live, and your choice will impact later missions and open up new ones. These choices will also affect the ending, ultimately meaning the game is very replayable.

The controls have been majorly updated since GTA's last outing. The aiming system automatically targets one of Niko's enemies with the touch of a button. The aiming reticule that appears while targeting someone shows you how much health they have left, and it also gives you the freedom of picking where to shoot, be it the head or the leg. However there are some criticisms with the new control system; Niko always seems to aim for the innocent bystander 50 feet away rather than the thug with a shotgun right in front of you. If you get too close to an enemy, Niko's aiming can go haywire, usually resulting in a mad burst of bullets into the sky while your adversary takes pot-shots at you. This auto-aim feature can be turned off, leaving more realistic, but harder, gameplay. However as auto-aim will be turned off for a lot of multiplayer modes, it's advisable to get the practice from the beginning.

Driving plays an enormous part in Niko's life; nearly every mission requires a commute from one part of Liberty City to another. The driving controls are much more realistic; gone are the days of full speed handbrake turns around corners, attempting this in GTA IV will invariably lead to Niko spinning out, crashing and flying through the windshield. It will take a while to get used to, at first it feels like the road is paved with butter and that the slightest over steer will take you in the opposite direction to what you intend. But soon you learn that sometimes going slower is better, and the game rewards you for intelligent braking and cornering.

In any case you usually won't require all that much speed, even to outrun the police. The police chase system has also been transformed; a red and blue flashing circle appears around you on the map when you are wanted by police. It denotes the search radius, the more Niko is wanted, the bigger the circle. By escaping this circle and staying out of sight for about ten seconds, Niko can evade the police. This is disappointingly easy, usually the police wanted level can be lost just by driving far enough down a straight road.

It is easy to tell how much work went into creating the world of Grand Theft Auto; it is astonishingly detailed. Every citizen of Liberty City seems to have their own personality and agenda. You will find yourself stopping during a shoot-out to listen to two old men converse about the local baseball team, listen to the crazy preacher's speech about the end of the world or even watch an overweight policeman try to chase down a drug dealer. Little things like not looking both ways while crossing the road and getting hit by a bin lorry provide endless amusement.

Niko has a mobile phone on which you can receive mission details, organise a date or just arrange a game of pool with friends. Indeed if you treat a friend to a show at the comedy club later on in the game you will get to watch a stand-up routine by none other than Ricky Gervais. Niko can also surf the Internet with many spoof sites providing hours of entertainment alone. Here you can also purchase ringtones for Niko's phone, go Internet dating or even reply to emails from Niko's dear old mother. Fine points like these contribute to the amazing detail of Liberty City and its inhabitants, and it is this sand-box nature of the game which is the main appeal to keep playing for hours after the story is complete, from going bowling with a friend to taking a helicopter tour around the Statue of Lib..Ahem..Happiness.

When you do want to take a break from the turmoil of Niko's life, you can venture into the online multiplayer mode. You can participate against up to 15 other players in a variety of game styles, from the ever-present deathmatch and team deathmatch to GTA races and cops 'n crooks. As there is no traditional game menu, multiplayer is accessed using Niko's phone menu.

The deathmatches are predictably fun, with the player or team at the end with the most money, collected off the corpses of their enemies, declared the winner. The other modes are just as fun, for example in cops 'n crooks one team starts in squad cars and must work together to kill the other team's boss, who is a randomly selected online player. The crooks must work together to protect their boss and evacuate him, sometimes by boat or helicopter.

Then there is free mode, the real gem of online play. The 16 players are free to do what they want, the whole group can work together to discover hidden secrets, or see who can survive a 6-star wanted level for the longest. Or you can be content with just running around killing each other, your choice. The possibilities are endless. So far there have been no major problems with multiplayer mode, lag or server overload does not seem to be an issue. Altogether there are over a dozen multiplayer modes, however it must be said most of them are a novelty, they become boring after a few days. It is free mode that will be the bread-and-butter of GTA's online play, the one that will keep attracting players back again and again.

Grand Theft Auto is simply a game you have to play; the graphics, environment and gameplay combine to put GTA comfortably in the lead as the contender for best game to ever be released onto the Playstation 3. The single-player story is the best in the series by far, and playing alone is still fun months after completing the story. The multiplayer features are good enough that you'll have no problem finding enough people for a good deathmatch in the foreseeable future. The game is not without flaws, but these minor shortcomings are supremely outnumbered by the immaculate attention to detail that will impress you every time you play. Grand Theft Auto IV is a game that will keep on surprising, even when you think you've looked at everything. And, as there’s so much to see in Liberty City, if you haven’t already started, you best start looking.